


Is The Sun Coming Up? (Or Are You Just Smiling At Me?)

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alive Laura Hale, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Alternate Universe- Werewolves are still a thing, Baker Derek Hale, Celebrity Crush, Fluff, Like really minor, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Meddling, Minor Cora Hale/Lydia Martin, Singer Stiles Stilinski, Spark Stiles Stilinski, Valentine's Day, charity auction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 14:39:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9764582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: Derek knew his sisters were trouble, and they always ended up meddlnig in his love life (or lack thereof) but he had never thought they'd go THIS far, entering him into a raffle to win a date with his celebrity crush behind his back...Now Derek had won and he didn't know what the hell he was going to do, he wasn't good with people, and he sure as hell wasn't good with people he LIKED, worst of all, Stiles wasexcited to meet him, how was he supposed to tell Stiles not to get his hopes up? Because seriously, Derek isn't worth it





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's Day!! Really getting this in under the wire because proof-reading sucks... but here you go anyway!!

_"Well in case you haven't been on the internet these last few days, social media has been BLOWING. UP. with the unveiling of the Buy My Valentine project, a charity project where you could win a date with your favorite celebrity! Over two dozen popular faces have signed up to be part of Buy My Valentine, and you could be the lucky winner who gets a Valentine's date with one of them! To enter, just visit your local Walgreens, Publix, or other participating stores to pick up a Buy My Valentine postcard, simply pick out the card with the corresponding celebrity, fill out your personal information on the back, and send it in! You'll then be entered into a raffle to win an all expenses paid date on Febuarary 14th- Valentine's Day- with the celebrity you entered for, the more you enter, the higher your chances are of winning, and don't forget, all proceeds go to charity! Here with us now are the stars who have so generously decided to participate in the event,"_

"Can we turn this off yet?"

Honestly, he had been sitting through this crap for the last ten minutes and he was about to go out of his mind from it

"No no! You have to see who's participating in this thing!"

He was a little surprised by it actually, his younger sister didn't typically care about this sort of thing- that was his older sister's territory

"Cora, why do you care?"

She didn't get the chance to answer- she didn't _need_ to, not once he heard the next words come out of the news anchor's mouth

_"-Stiles Stilinski, lead singer of the popular band Sparks, who will be donating to the ASPCA, he's twenty-three, bisexual, and currently has four hit singles on Billboard's Hot 100 right now, remember that all proceeds from the purchase of Stiles' postcard for Buy My Valentine will be donated to the ASPCA, so if you love animals and cute musicians, this may be the Valentine you're looking for! Next up-"_

Slowly, he turned around, eyebrows raised and staring at his all-too-giddy looking sisters behind him

"Is _this_ what you wanted me to see?"

"Oh come on Derek, don't act so unimpressed, we all know you're head-over-heels for Stiles," Cora insisted

"I am not 'head over heels' for some guy I've never met," he insisted with a frown, pursing his lips and sinking down a little bit lower on the couch, face starting to turn red

"Oh please, he's your favorite celebrity, up for a possible date, how could you not even TRY?"

"I didn't know favoring a celebrity meant that you automatically wanted to date them, I hope Parrish doesn't mind that you want to have an affair with Eva Green,"

Cora started to snicker, only for Derek to bark at her as well

"You're one to laugh, Norman Reedus,"

That, atleast, effectively shut Cora up for a few moments

"Derek," his older sister began

"Laura please... I'm not going to try to date him ok? Besides, those things are rigged,"

"You don't know that," Laura insisted with a huff

"Well even if I'm wrong and it ISN'T rigged the gamble is far too high, it's a what? One in HOW many thousand chance? And I'm being generous here,"

"It's for charity!"

"Then I'll write the ASPCA a check- no troublesome middle man,"

His sisters seemed _entirely_ unimpressed

"Come on Derek, live a little!" Laura insisted with a huff

"No thanks, I'm happier being dead inside," Derek replied effortlessly, pushing off of the couch and heading towards the door

"I'm going to the auto shop, you know, to do something _productive_ ," he added a moment later, grabbing his jacket from the coat rack and pulling his keys from the bowl on the end table

"Bring back a sense of adventure wile you're at it!" Cora called as the door slammed shut behind her brother

There was a moment of silence, breifly, before Laura spoke up again

"So... how many postcards are we buying for him?"

 

~+~

 

"Isn't it bad enough that you already subjected me to this crap once? Are you seriously going to do it again?"

"Oh hush, we don't ask you for much you know," Laura insisted

"You ask me for plenty," Derek huffed back, grabbing a handfull of mushrooms from the bowl on the counter and setting them on the cutting board

He certainly didn't mind making dinner, but generally the rule was whoever was cooking picked out what was on TV...

"Just give us ten minutes and then we PROMISE we'll put it back on X-Files,"

Derek sighed heavily, rolling his eyes but not arguing- he just didn't feel like it tonight

Besides, it was a Sunday, Laura was over for dinner wich she only did once or twice a week these days, and for the first time in months her fiance' was working late and it was finally just the three of them

Sure they saw eachother all day every day at work but... Derek couldn't help that he really missed having actual quality time with his big sister, even if said quality time was occasionally annoying

The point was, he wasn't going to spend the time he had with her arguing- he'd wait and argue with her tommorrow at work

_"And now for the winners of the Buy My Valentine raffle! First up, the lucky guy or gal who'll be winning a date with the lead singer of Sparks, Stiles Stilinski!"_

Derek tried to tune it out, he may not have entered the competition but it didn't mean he was necessarily fond of the idea of hearing who won it

It was the same reason he tried to stay away from learning about Stiles' relationship status, he liked learning little bits and peices of trivia about the guy sure, but he didn't need- or want- to know about his romantic availability, that was only bound to break his heart

He'd rather live on in ignorant bliss pretending that Stiles was completely unattached so he co-

_"Derek Hale of Beacon Hills, California!!!"_

_**"WHAT!?"** _

If it hadn't been for Cora's fast werewolf reflexes, the glass bowl of onions that Derek dropped would have shattered right to the floor

"How did I win when I didn't even sign-"

He paused, slowly turning around and glaring at the women who had slowly made their way into the kitchen

"You two..... _you two_ did this..." he snarled, glaring and lip up-turned as he stared down the girls

"Well you weren't going to do it," Cora snipped

Derek's eye twitched, lips pressing into a thin line as he glared at her

"Because I didn't WANT to do it, if I wanted to do it I would have,"

"You said the only reason you didn't sign up was because you thought it was rigged and didn't think you'd ever win, so we saved you the trouble by making sure you won," Cora shrugged back

"Really, you should be thanking us," she added a second later

"That isn't what I said!! I said it's _a reason_ , not the ONLY reason, and what do you mean you 'made sure' I won!?"

"As it turns out, Lydia actually knows Stiles, she's the designer for the band and they've been close since highschool, crazy right?"

Was she serious?

"So you not only signed me up for this without my permission, you also used your girlfreind to rig it for me!?"

"You make it sound so negative,"

"That's because it is!"

"Derek just take a breath, it was for charity after all," Laura said slowly, taking a step closer to her brother

"Why would I take a breath? You blatantly went against my wishes to put me in the running for something I didn't want and to CHEAT for me so that I would win, you don't see anything wrong with that? And as for charity, I already told you I was donating, I wrote a check for the ASPCA yesterday so don't try to put this on THAT,"

"It's just a DATE Derek, calm your tits," Cora huffed back

"Calm my-!?"

_"Raffle winners should be getting a phone call between tonight and tommorrow to confirm the details of their dates, if they don't respond within twenty-four hours a new lot will be drawn for the corresponding celebrity and the runner up-"_

Derek slowly pulled his phone out of his pocket, face pale as he stared down at it, anxiety starting to rush through his veins

"Don't ring...." he said slowly, praying that he wasn't about to be interrupted in the middle of this argument before he could even prepare a tactfull way of backing out

"Don't ring, don't ring, don't ring, don't-"

His cell phone didn't ring, but the landline did

Before he could leap towards it and disconnect it from the wall, Cora made it there first and answered it

"Hello? Ohh _Stiles_ huh? He's here," she smirked, holding her hand over the receiver and smirking as she stepped closer and mouthed "Be nice" to Derek before handing him the phone

 _Stiles_....

Stiles _himself_ was on the phone?

Derek had been counting on it being some stranger- a manager or something- to call him so he could get out of it but Stiles?

Slowly, he reached out and caught the phone, reluctantly pressing it to his ear

"Hello?"

_"Hey! Is this Derek?"_

"Um... yes-"

_"Hey! I'm Stiles, were you watching the local news? You won!"_

"I saw that, um... list-"

_"I was so surprised to hear you were interested in me, you know Lydia is like a sister to me, so to hear that her girlfreind's brother wanted a date with me-"_

Had **that** been how Cora had phrased it!?

_"-it made me really want to meet you, I mean, Cora's really done alot for Lydia, I don't remember ever seeing her this happy, so I figure, you know, maybe that's a Hale trait, and when she said her brother was entering the raffle it was like kismet!"_

"Well-"

_"And then when I heard you entered a **hundred times** I was like ok, this is the dude, this one HAS to win-"_

" _How_ many times!?"

_"-so I told our manager to pull your name so I could meet you, I mean I know the cheating is pretty skeevy and all but you know, they allow it for safety reasons, because there are all of those stalkers and crazy people and everything that could take advantage but anyway, so um... our date... you're available for Valentine's right?"_

Here it was

This was his chance to get out of this tactfully

To tell Stiles that this was all one big misunderstanding and that wile he appreciated the effort and still enjoyed his music, a date was NOT in their future

"I'm available,"

Or not

_"Great!! You live in Beacon Hills right? That's especially awesome, that's my hometown so I'm there now,"_

"Really?"

He hadn't expected Stiles Stilinski to be from Beacon Hills but... then again, he supposed that "Stilinski" wasn't a very common name and he should've known that he was related to the town sheriff....

_"Yeah! So do you have a favorite place in town you'd like to go to? Or I could take you out of town if you want,"_

"Um.... in town is fine really,"

_"Ok, cool, anywhere specific?"_

"Um.. no, you can just surprise me,"

Just surprise him? Sure, that sounded like a great idea, talk about digging himself into this deeper...

_"Great! I'll pick you up, how about seven?"_

"Um.... yeah, seven works..."

_"Great! I'll get Lydia to give me directions to your house then, I hate to cut this short but I'm actually cooking dinner for my dad so... I'll see you Valentine's Day?"_

"Yeah, yeah .... see you Valentine's Day,"

With that Stiles hung up, leaving Derek staring in shock for a moment at the phone before he slowly hung up and glared up at his sisters- who seemed MORE than too happy about his conversation

"A _hundred_ entries?"

"It was for charity!!"

 

~+~

 

What had he been THINKING when he accepted this date!?

It was Valentine's night, just a mere three days after the phone call that changed everything, and Derek was about to freak out

Stiles would be here any minute and he hadn't even picked out what to wear yet...

Not that Derek usually CARED about things like that, and he certainly never cared what people thought about him, but .. well... he couldn't help wanting to make a good impression on Stiles

And this was going to be the first date that he had had in YEARS, so to say that he felt out of his depth and inexperienced was certainly putting it mildly

He never should have accepted this date, he should have just told Stiles that the musician was getting his hopes up for nothing and to pick someone actually at random instead of settling for him...

"I'm telling you, you should go for the Star Wars sweater,"

Derek jumped, glaring over his shoulder at Cora and pressing his lips into a thin, tense line

"Why? Where is he taking me? Chuck-E-Cheese?"

"Might be, but that isn't the point, the point is Stiles is a huge nerd, if you really want to impress him, go straight for his geek-nerve,"

"And who says I want to impress him?"

The snort Cora gave was _entirely_ unnecessary, thank you

"Don't listen to her Derek, wear something NICE, how about your burgundy dress shirt? You know, the one Aunt Paula gave you last year?"

Derek DID like that shirt....

"You don't think it's too formal?"

"YES, it's way, way too formal," Cora chimed in, producing the Star Wars sweater from behind her back and practically waving it in front of him

"Derek, don't wear that, you don't know where he's taking you, what if he takes you to a five-star restaurant or something?"

"ORRRR what if he takes you bowling or something?"

Derek knew from experience that this could- and would- go on all night if he let it, so he decided for the best of everyone to just end it before it got any worse

"I'm settling in the middle," he finally decided, grabbing his burgundy thumb-hole sweater from the closet and slipping it on with a pointed glare in the direction of his sisters

He was still a little sore, honestly, about the entire "setting him up without his permission" thing, and he was going to use every opportunity he could to remind them of that

"Atleast wear your Supergirl jacket," Cora insisted with a frown

Luckily Derek didn't have time to respond to that, as his ears perked to the sound of a car parking outside

"He's here!" Laura beamed with excitement, wasting no time in rushing towards the front door even though Stiles clearly wasn't there quite yet

Cora gave the jacket a longing look before deciding to join her sister, thus leaving Derek alone to decide for himself weather or not he wanted to wear it

The doorbell rang, his ears perked, and in a last minute decision he grabbed the jacket, heading towards the door as well

The moment he saw Stiles, he couldn't help but feel his heart leap

The man was beautifull, even moreso than any peice of film or digital display could ever properly portray, and his scent...

His scent was otherworldly

"Derek? Hey! I'm Stiles, well... I guess you probably already know that but hey! I'm Stiles!"

Cheeks colored pink, Derek made his way towards the other male, trying his best to smile despite how nervous and uncomfortable he felt

"I'm Derek," he finally said, and if Stiles noticed his nervousness, he didn't say anything

"Derek, cool, have you ever been to _Sophia's_?"

He had heard of the place, kind of vaguely, but he hadn't been there before

"Um, no," he finally answered, giving his head a small shake

"You up for it? Italian~"

He gave a timid nod, letting Stiles pull him out of the house with a wave and hurrying to get his jacket on as they made their way to the car

"Is that a Supergirl jacket? I love that,"

Yeah..... that was one little peice of information that Derek was definitely going to keep to himself

 

~+~

 

The ride to the restaurant had been nice enough, and they were half-way through their food by this point and everything was just.... nice

There was small talk and they seemed to get along well but...

But things were a little stilted and awkward and Derek knew that that was his fault

He knew that it was because he was nervous and shy and couldn't quite... talk.... the way Stiles did

He knew that it was because Stiles was mostly carrying the conversation and he felt guilty but...

But this was exactly the sort of reason why he hadn't wanted his sisters to set this up for him to begin with...

He wasn't good with people, especially people he LIKED, how was he supposed to talk to someone he liked and didn't even _know_ that well when he could barely hold conversations with customers he had had for years now?

This was a disaster, he was ruining Stiles' Valentine's night for essentially no reason...

"Can I ask you something kind of personal?" the younger male asked suddenly, drawing Derek's attention away from his pasta as he gave a slow nod

"It's just... it's been bugging me for a wile now.... a _hundred_ raffle entries? You just... you don't seem like the type, either you REALLY liked the charity or REALLY wanted to meet me and I'm not really sure wich I should be assuming,"

Great....

Cover blown, time to come clean, sure he could lie but Stiles was making it pretty clear that he could see through that like a pro...

"I... actually didn't enter.. at all, that was my sisters, they bought the tickets or- ... postcards... for me,"

"Oh,"

Stiles' voice was some devastating cross between surprised, disappointed, realization, and ... hurt....

Way to go Derek

"It isn't because I didn't want to meet you," he said quickly, hoping that it would take some of the sting out of the harshness of his words

"I just... I didn't think there was any point... I thought I'd save myself the embarrassment of getting my hopes up and just donate to the ASPCA myself- wich I did, by the way- since I figured the entire thing was rigged anyway, or that you'd probably have to enter about a hundred times just to have a snowball's chance,"

"Wow, irony," Stiles said with surprise

"No kidding," he huffed back

"But you... you do.... WANT to be here right? You aren't.... here against your will?"

"I'm not here against my will," he promised

After all, if he was really that reluctant, he would have told Stiles no over the phone...

"I just... I'm not good with people, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly a great conversationalist," he added a second later

This seemed to relax Stiles, a noticeable weight coming off of his shoulders as he leaned in just a little bit closer

"Oh thank GOD, Cora said it would take some warming up to before you'd be able to really talk to me, I wasn't sure exactly what she meant but I thought it was something to do with ME,"

"No it's... it's just my problem," Derek muttered back, fidgeting a little and looking down

Stiles smiled a little bit more, reaching out ad placing his hand over the werewolf's

"Hey, it's alright, I get it, I mean I may talk alot but I'm not exactly a social butterfly,"

"I think you're doing pretty well," Derek said with a small, slightly anxious smile

Stiles snorted, shaking his head

"I may talk alot, but I'm not exactly a social butterfly," he repeated

"I think you're doing pretty well," Derek insisted, wich only made the musician grin

"Well thank you, for what it's worth though, I'm sorry your sisters did this behind your back, atleast ... I assume it was behind your back, from your tone it sounds like you didn't know about it, and that would explain why you sounded so caught off guard over the phone,"

"I didn't know about it," he confirmed with a frown, taking a bite of his food

"I'm sorry about that then, but... for the record, I'm really glad it was you, I was honestly a little bit worried about this entire thing, but my manger was ... you know... kind of insistent... I'm always lowkey worried about getting involved with some crazy fan, but luckily they let me cheat on the raffle for that reason alone, I feel bad about it but atleast all that money ended up getting donated to charity, that's the only reason I even accepted this thing anyway,"

"You really are very committed to the ASPCA aren't you?" Derek asked with a slightly fond smile

"Yeah, I mean, human charities are important but... animals can't speak for themselves, they need someone else to speak for them, and with my big mouth, I figured I could probably get alot done,"

"I think you're right about that- atleast to some degree, I noticed you've hosted the Puppy Bowl two years in a row now,"

Stiles' lips perked up into a grin, eyes lighting up a little bit

"Yeah, that's one of the few perks about being a celebrity, people let you do hosting stuff like that, wich is always fun, I heard it actually drew in more veiwers weirdly enough,"

One of the _few_ perks of being a celebrity?

Did Stiles not like being famous?

It was kind of hard to believe....

"I actually ended up taking one of the puppies home this year," he added a second later

"Really? Wich one?"

"There was one named Rey and... well, I'm a huge Star Wars geek so it was like a calling, let me tell you something, Hermione was NOT happy to have to share my attention,"

"Hermione?" Derek asked with a slight grin

"Yeah, you know, my first dog? Don't laugh at my nerdness ok?" Stiles teased

"I'm not, I just... my dog's name is Luna, it's-"

"Like kismet!!! Ohhh that's so cute, what breed is she?" he cooed eagerly, grabbing the dessert menu from the corner of the table and scanning it with his eyes

"Thanks, and she's a Yorkie, actually,"

Stiles paused, peeking out from over the menu with raised eyebrows

" _You_.... have a _Yorkie_? I mean, no judgement!!! All dogs are good dogs and you should NOT be stereotyped because you look like a lumberjack or anything, but I just... I mean.... your personality... you seem like you'd want a bigger dog,"

"It isn't like I picked her out at a shelter or anything, it was more of an almost accident in how I got her, but... trust me, if I told you, you wouldn't believe me," Derek said simply, taking a sip of his coke

"Why? Because it has something to do with werewolves?"

Derek coughed, choking on his drink and jerking his head up to stare at Stiles in distress

"What? Did Cora not tell you I'm in on it? Dude, I'm a spark, you're cool, been part of a pack since my teenage years,"

How Cora had conveniently left all of THAT out of the conversation, Derek wasn't sure, but he sure as hell wasn't pleased about it

"No, she didn't tell me," he huffed

"Huh... maybe Lydia forgot to tell her or something..." he muttered back, clicking his tongue as he leaned closer and pointed to a picture at the bottom of the menu

"What do you think about this? Caramel Apple Goldrush? It's like an apple pie ala mode drenched in caramel and raspberry sauce with-"

"It's a heart attack on a plate," Derek frowned back, eyebrows raised as he gently shoved the menu onto the table

"Stiles did you even see how many calories are in that thing?"

"Well... yeah but it's Valentine's Day! And it's a date!"

"So you have a right to put yourself in a sugar coma? Aren't you always talking about how you monitor your father's health so that he doesn't die early?"

"Well yeah-"

"Would you let him have this?"

"No but I don't HAVE the health issues he has-"

"Do you want to develop them?"

Stiles pouted, staring longingly at the dessert before letting his eyes flick up towards Derek with slight frustration

"Look, I can make one of these in an hour with HALF the BS that's crammed into this thing, I promise it'll taste just as good,"

There was a breif pause, a smirk crawling over his face

"Sooooo..... you're inviting me over?"

Derek really hadn't thought about it like that before, and once the realization sank into him he started to turn red, but...

"Yes," he said slowly, a little worried that he was somehow stepping into a trap or putting himself in a situation far more vulnerable than he needed to be

"Well now how could I say no to that?" Stiles smirked back, his eyes practically glowing as he locked his stare with Derek's

The wolf's heart was pounding, face turning redder and redder as he started to wonder what the hell he had just gotten himself into

 

~+~~

 

Unbelievably, things were sort of... relaxed.... from that point on

Things were light and fun, Stiles was easy to talk to, somehow Derek found himself actually.... talking.....

Talking and teasing and feeling ... normal instead of tense and anxious and awkward

Derek had tried to pay but Stiles insisted-

_"You won't even let me go dutch?"_

_"All expenses paid remember? Dude, it's on me, and even if it WASN'T, I'm the one who invited YOU out, so I'm the on- OH MY GOD IS THAT A STUCKY WALLET!?"_

That had eaten up the remainder of their time at the restaurant and a good portion of their time driving back to Derek's as well

The werewolf was utterly amazed by just how easy it was talking to Stiles now, as if somehow the ice had finally been broken, and he was actually.... having a pretty good time....

"-And I'm just saying, if they kill Steve in Infinity Wars, I'm never watching a Marvel movie again,"

"Even if it's Deadpool?" Derek asked smoothly, slipping his key into the lock and opening the door

Stiles paused, tense and lips pressed into a thin line

"Ok I might make an exception for Deadpool but that's it,"

"Sure," Derek smirked back, turning the light on and shutting the door behind Stiles as the sound of paws stomping on carpet echoed through the room, and before Derek even had time to turn around, he felt the familiar weight of a dog slamming into his waist

... And then another one against his leg

"Oh my God! You didn't say you had two dogs!" Stiles squealed excitedly

"That's because I don't," Derek grunted, turning around and gently pushing the German Shepherd off of him... only for the dog to suddenly turn his attention to Stiles and tackle him instead

"Cas here belongs to my sister's fiance', they must have dropped him off wile I was gone so they could go on their date without leaving him alone,"

Wich wasn't that unusual, Cas was something of a cry-baby and didn't like being alone, so whenever Laura and Parrish were gone and unable to be with him they usually left him with Derek and Cora

"Aww," Stiles grinned back, dropping down easily onto the floor and reaching out as the Yorkie started to jump and spin in excitement around him

"Oh um, can I-"

"Go ahead," Derek smiled back, feeling a soft, warm, fluttering in his chest as he watched Stiles pet and affectionately scratch behind Luna's ears

"She's so cute... how did you end up with her exactly? You never did end up telling me,"

"Oh, well... my parents take in foster werewolf kids, when my mother went to pick one up from a human household a couple of years ago she saw Luna there, she was just a baby, only about nine weeks old, and she ... well, they weren't taking care of her, so my mom brought her back and gave her to me since she knew I was trying to get a dog anyway, you wouldn't believe how hard it is to adopt from some places,"

"Ohhhh yes I would," Stiles snorted, rising back up to his feet so he could follow Derek to the kitchen and leaning against the counter as Derek started to gather the tools and bakeware he needed

"I mean, there was one place I tried to go to before Hermione that wanted me to list three personal references and a vet reference,"

Derek paused, his hand on a rolling pin as he slowly turned towards his companion

"You cannot be serious...."

"Oh but I am, one place you weren't even allowed to CALL unless they replied to your email application,"

He slowly raised an eyebrow, setting the rolling pin on the counter in front of him

"That's..... I don't know if there's a word for it,"

"Yeah, it sucks, I mean I do get why they're trying to have some safe-guards in place and they need SOME but there's a thing about there just being too much, especially when you consider that some of these 'adoption fees' are like three hundred bucks, it really makes it hard on people and the animals end up suffering because less people are available to adopt them, even if someone could qualify that ends up being so intimidating that they don't bother because it freaks them out, there has to be a balance between having safe guards and making adoption, you know, POSSIBLE for your average human being,"

"No kidding," Derek said with a slight frown, eyes narrowing slightly as he stared at the fruit bowl on the counter

"What's wrong?" Stiles asked, tilting his head and turning his attention back to the other man

"We're out of apples...."

"Oh! No worries, I've gottcha," he said with a small smile, moving towards the table in the center of the kitchen and pulling his wallet out

"Don't tell me you're going to the store," Derek frowned, crossing his arms over his chest

"Huh? Oh, no, no way, I've got this from a witch side! Benefits of magic man," he replied with a bright grin, grabbing a handfull of quarters from his wallet and setting them on the table

Derek slowly raised his eyebrows, tilting his head in confusion as he watched

Stiles took a deep breath, eyes closed as he hovered his hands over the quarters, a dim, blue glow emitting, and then, in an instant, the quarters were replaced with a bundle of apples

"Ta-da!!"

"How ...? Where did those come from?"

"My dad's house, don't worry, he doesn't eat them,"

Derek was almost tempted to ask why his father had so many apples if he didn't even eat them, but he decided not to, there were other topics at hand

"That's.... thank you, that's a pretty cool trick,"

"My specialty, one of the many perks of being a witch," Stiles winked back, grabbing up the apples and carrying them to the cutting board on the counter

"So there are alot of perks to being a witch then?" he couldn't help but ask

"Yeah, I'd say I've probably got my pick of the litter with DNA, there's nothin' else I'd rather be,"

Derek nodded slowly, grabbing a bowl and starting to wash the apples off

"It's just... you said earlier that hosting the Puppy Bowl was one of the 'few' perks of being a celebrity so I was wondering... do you not like being famous?"

"Well I'd hardly call myself 'famous' but..."

Stiles paused, glancing at the floor and licking his lips before continuing

"I love my fans, don't get me wrong, and there's nothing that makes me happier than being able to make a living with my music, I love being a musician, it's my life... but there are certainly things that come with it I could do without, like being pushed to auction a date with myself with a total stranger?"

To say that Derek could understand was putting it mildly

"It's all worth it, ofcourse, anything for my music, but I just mean... the actual celebrity aspect? I could go without that,"

Again, Derek perfectly understood that, not that he had any experience with fame but just by the fact that being around people made him uncomfortable...

"I'm just seriously glad I have a manager who understands things like the supernatural, I would NOT want to have a normal manager, I mean could you imagine what would happen if I needed something to do with my mental health or Scott or someone had some werewolf issue? You know we'd eventually have to play during full moons, something we've avoided until now, and then ofcourse with my anxiety issues and why I don't travel much..."

"Ah... I've been meaning to ask about that, you only go on tour for a few weeks a year right?"

Not that Derek had ever actually checked the tour dates or anything.... *cough*

"Yeah, I don't like being away from home- just... at all, there's alot of stuff about touring that makes my anxiety act up, so we really only go for like six to eight weeks at a time and play local gigs outside of that, but between selling the music and YouTube we do pretty well even without touring often, we just did a pre-tour for about two weeks that was fine, plus not leaving the state much actually does well as a marketing tactic, people see we're in their area or happen to be on vacation here in Cali and they make an effort to see the show because they know it's probably their only chance to hear that tour's songs live,"

"So instead of playing alot of half full venues you play a few packed venues, basically,"

"Right, yeah, exactly,"

It made sense, sounded pretty reasonable all things considered

"I'm glad it's working for you, I know how hard it can be making your way in a creative feild, especially music," Derek agreed, starting to slice the apples off of their cores

"Yeah, it's definitely had it's harder times... but I'm sure you can relate to that, you have a bakery right? How is it?"

"It's going pretty well, we have alot of regulars and get some newbies here and there, if anything I just wish we could get some more customers for our online business,"

"You sell online?"

People always seemed somewhat surprised when Derek said that....

"Yeah, we have special containers that help us keep things fresh through the mail, a little bit of magic added in, we also usually use express shipping too so..."

"Wow, that sounds incredible, and it isn't doing well?" Stiles asked in surprise, handing Derek a dish towel as he finished washing the apples

"No, unfortunately, most people don't buy from bakeries without having sampled the products- unless it's something like a specialty cake that they're getting made, why would they pay for shipping and wait days for our cupcakes when they can just get cupcakes from a local bakery within a matter of minutes?"

"I guess that's true, but I bet if they could just taste your stuff they'd go the extra mile,"

"But aside from mailing out samples there's no way to accomplish that, and even then I'm not sure how many people would really order samples in the first place,"

Stiles hummed quietly, looking down and biting his lip in thought

"It's too bad there's no way you could do like... a baking tour or anything..."

"A shame," Derek replied simply, he wasn't actually that concerned about it, they knew their online business wouldn't do that well but it didn't really cost anything to keep that part of their website going so they weren't going to get rid of it, it was just... a little annoying was all, that they were pretty much local only

And atleast they _did_ get a stray order now and then from loyal customers...

"Unless..." Stiles said slowly, looking up at Derek and starting to grin

"Unless that IS what you do, what if you accompanied musicians on tour and gave out samples at their shows? You know when our band first got started we used to give out goodie bags at every show with stuff like bookmarks and magnets in there, they were a surprisingly huge hit and I bet cookies would do a hell of alot better than stickers,"

"Maybe but... I don't think any of us should stay gone from the store for more than a few weeks at a time, we only just hired a couple of people after... years of it being a family only business..."

"You could just go on tour for a few days or a week or something and then fly back home? I mean unless you just wanted to come with my band when we tour since we're never gone for THAT long of a .. time..."

Derek raised an eyebrow, confused for a moment as to why Stiles was suddenly pausing, until the musician wipped around, grinning from ear to ear and eyes practically glowing

"That's it! That's it! You should come with us! Think about it, it'd be perfect! We're only gone for a few weeks a year, we go all over the country so you'll have far reach, our fans are kinda eccentric anyway and you know me- you LIKE me, atleast I hope you do- so not so much awkwardness... it'd be great!"

Derek wasn't quite sure what was happening here, one minute they were talking about their mutual difficulties in promoting their own careers, and the next he was being asked to go on tour with Stiles

How.....?

"I don't know, I mean, we barely know eachother," he teased back

Because really, there was just no way he could think of to make a serious response to that

"Mmm, fair point," Stiles agreed, leaning over Derek's shoulder a little and giving a small grin

"Can I-"

"No, you can't have raw sugar,"

"Crap...."

 

~+~

 

"So.... you have to record me why again?"

"Part of my contract, I have to make atleast one post on all of my social media accounts per week, I figure this is probably the best option I'm going to have all week,"

Derek could never understand the social media thing

His sisters were the ones who ran their bakery's website and subsequent internet... stuff......

And even besides that, he couldn't understand being forced to use social media as part of a contract, even though he knew that was popular these days

"And I'm guessing you don't like using social media?" he asked after a moment, still waiting on Stiles to finish booting up his phone

He was actually kind of amazed that Stiles hadn't left it on but the musician insisted that he didn't want to risk their date being interrupted

(It was kind of incredibly considerate, honestly)

"Nah, I used to, but it just got so full of negativity and hatred... I just really couldn't take it anymore so I tried to divorce myself from it, but ofcourse then we got signed and the contractual obligation thing happened and now I just go on to do something random once a week as per agreement and that's it, no... getting involved in anything, too much stress, I take it you don't use social media either?"

"Not at all,"

"So THAT'S why you hadn't heard of Hermione then, I was wondering, I don't talk about her much in interviews or anything but she takes up like 80% of my social media content, the other 20% is stuff like food and the occasional fandom reference, nothing too personal you know?"

"Smart idea, not putting out anything too personal that is," Derek agreed slowly, nose twitching as the familiar scent of a freshly baked pie (thing?) hit his nose

One good thing about being a werewolf baker? You always know when something is over or under done, even if the timer doesn't

He turned the timer off, opened the oven, and pulled out the pastry just as he heard the familiar click of a phone's camera feature

He set the pastry down on the stove, eyebrows raised as he glanced at Stiles over his shoulder

"Don't worry don't worry, that one is just for my private use," he teased, hopping down from the kitchen table and making his way over to the counter

"Ohhhhh my GOD that smells AMAZING and it looks even better,"

"Just wait," Derek smirked back, grabbing a plate from the top cabinets and scooping the pastry onto it

Stiles' mouth was practically watering as he watched, and Derek was a little bit sure he would have to end up pushing the witch away with a spoon atleast at some point

"There's more?" he breathed, catching Derek's eye as the werewolf moved over to the freezer and grabbed a bucket of vanilla ice cream

"I told you I was replicating the one at the restaurant," he shrugged back, scooping a huge chunk of ice cream on top of the pastry

And just as he thought Stiles' eyes might actually come out of his head, he brought out the finale': The raspberry and caramel sauces

"Ohh my God you are going to kill me," Stiles gasped, flicking the video function on his phone on and holding it up towards Derek

"Does everyone see this man right here? This is the man who's going to kill me, LOOK AT WHAT HE'S MAKING!"

Derek let out a slight laugh as Stiles panned down to the dessert, watching him jump in front of the camera and make faces at it

"If you're so impressed by how it looks, give a try to how it tastes," he challenged, handing Stiles a spoon

"Ohh I'm liking this," Stiles grinned back, handing Derek the phone so that the video could keep filming as he dug the spoon into the dessert

If there was a way to describe pure and utter happiness, it would be the face that Stiles made when he put that first bite in his mouth

"Oh... my God.... am I in Heaven? Is that what this is?"

Without warning, he grabbed the phone, staring into it as seriously as he possibly could

"Ok everyone and anyone who sees this video, I am telling you, go to _'Straight From Hale'_ Bakery!! You will not regret it!!"

"Thanks for the free promo," Derek laughed, shaking his head a little as Stiles ended the video, it was nice being able to laugh this much, he couldn't remember the last time he had been able to

"Dude you deserve it, ok? You MORE than deserve it, this is the most amazing thing I've ever had in my mouth and that's saying ALOT!"

"You uh... have alot of experience with things in your mouth?" Derek teased

He knew it was a pretty terrible joke but the look on Stiles' face was more than worth it

"Oh... my God I think I might actually love you,"

He knew it was just a joke, but Derek couldn't help the shy, almost hopefully smile that lit out over his features

So he was a closet romantic, big deal

"SERIOUSLY though!! This is the best thing EVER! I'm so glad I didn't settle for the one at _Sophia's_ , oh my God!"

"Well thank you, see? Didn't I tell you I could do better?"

"You did," Stiles confirmed as he grabbed another spoonfull and started to moan

"Restaurants overdo everything with sweets because of decadence, wich is fine in theory as long as you don't _actually_ overdo your ingredients, but that's just baking talk... do you um... maybe want to eat this in the living room? We could watch a movie or something," he offered with a slight smile

"Sure! Do you like X-Files?"

Now Derek was the one who was starting to think he was in love...

 

~+~

 

Mostly, waking up was a blur, he caught a vague notion of Stiles moving and reached out blindly to grab at him, not sure where his date was going or what he was doing but knowing that he wanted him to stay right there with Derek instead

Derek Hale was, and always would be, a clingy sleeper

"Hey? Derek?" Stiles wispered quietly

"It's two o'clock buddy, I should get going, you gonna be alright here?"

"No..." Derek groaned insistingly, managing to curl his hand around the musician's

"Don't... just stay...."

"You sure?"

"Mm-hm.... please stay....." the werewolf mumbled back, really only half-awake at this point

Stiles leaned in a little closer, gently rubbing his thumb over the back of Derek's hand

"Ok," he said softly

"I can do that,"

He turned the TV off, wrapping Derek in his arms and easily lifting him up- _Spark power_!- and carrying him towards what he hoped was Derek's bedroom, trailed by the dogs the entire way

Apparently he was finally going to be part of a puppy pile, wich would include a metaphorical werewolf puppy and two _actual_ puppies

Best. Valentine's Day. EVER.

 

~+~

 

Derek woke up with something of a start, looking around anxiously and feeling a sense of sadness upon finding that he was alone in bed

He didn't even remember coming to bed actually....

But once he took a breath and started adjusting to being awake, he caught a scent of something....

The scent of waffles... and something else to go with them...

Tossing the sheets off, he hurried out of bed and swung into the kitchen, heart almost skipping a beat when he finally saw Stiles, still there obviously, making waffles in the kitchen

"Oh hey, hope you don't mind I usurped your kitchen, I uh... thought, you know, I probably overstayed my welcome, best to smooth that over with waffles,"

"You... didn't overstay your welcome," Derek said slowly, taking a step closer

"I asked you to stay didn't I?"

Stiles blinked in what appeared to be surprise at that, putting the spatula he had picked up back on the counter and tilting his head

"Well... I mean... you weren't just sleep talking? 'Cause, you know, I do that sometimes, actually I do that alot,"

"Even if I was, I still asked you to stay, so you shouldn't feel like you overstayed your welcome," he pointed out

Wich... ok, point

"Well I'm happy that you like having me around," Stiles grinned as he returned to the waffles

"By the way... how did you manage to get me to bed last night?" Derek asked hesitantly, he was actually a little scared to know the answer to this, figuring it was probably either going to end in magic or his embarrassment

"I carried you," Stiles replied simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world

And Derek had to admit, the thought of Stiles carrying him was... oddly nice.... in some way that he couldn't quite explain

"Oh! Before I forget! Your cell phone has been going off all morning,"

That comment was sobering though, snapping Derek out of his shy little bubble and causing his head to pop up

"What!?"

"It's on the coffee table,"

So clearly when Stiles had carried him to bed his phone had not made the journey with them

Derek had sworn he had put it in his pocket but then maybe not....

The musician was right though, when he checked his messages and missed calls there were over a dozen from Laura just in the last couple of hours....

Cursing, he hurried to call her back, anxiety settled deep in his gut as he waited on her to pick up

What the hell could possibly be so urgent?

Especially if she was just calling him instead of coming by the apartment... atleast it couldn't be life-threatening in that case... right?

_"FINALLY! Derek we've been calling you for two hours!"_

"Yeah I found that out... what's wrong? What's happening?"

_"We're SWAMPED!! You've got to get down here and help us!"_

Swamped?

Why were they swamped the day after Valentine's Day?

Did people not get a fill of their sweet tooth the day before...?

"I'll be there within an hour," he promised, hurrying through a goodbye and hanging up

He had hoped when he saw Stiles out here that he would be able to actually spend the morning with him, make up for falling asleep on him last night, but it didn't look like that was going to happen..

Atleast until he was faced with a spatula blocking his path

"I do hope you plan on taking ten minutes to eat breakfast, don't make me eat all of these by myself Derek, I'll get all sugared up and then pass out on you and I don't think you want that,"

He knew he needed to hurry and get to the bakery but... what was ten more minutes?

Smiling, he turned away from the spatula and started back for the kitchen

"Well now, we can't have that can we?"

 

~+~

 

"Holy Hale..."

Stiles had taken the words right out of Derek's mouth

When they started driving to the bakery Derek was anticipating it to be crowded the way yesterday afternoon had been crowded, with basically a store full of people

That was not the case

Yesterday was TAME compared to this

There was a line going _outside of the bakery_

He had never in his life seen anything like it- well, not for their bakery anyway

Derek hurried to park the car, he and Stiles getting out in a rush and racing into the bakery, though it took a little of pushing along the way

"Laura!!"

The other wolf wipped around, a clearly relieved look on her face

"Oh thank God, Derek!! Get an apron on, we need you in the back ASAP!"

She no more had the words out of her mouth before she noticed Stiles, eyes going wide and mouth falling open

"YOU! You're the one who's responsible for all of this!!"

The witch jerked, confused as to why she would jump to a conclusion like that

"What-"

"Your video last night!! Do you have any IDEA how many followers you have!? Your fans have been crawling all over this place all morning! Even our online has been picking up, we've been getting orders since last night!"

Ohhh.... so it _was_ technically Stiles' fault....

He didn't get a chance to apologize though, not before Laura rushed forward and gave him a tight hug

" _Thank you_ , business has never been anything like this before and it's all thanks to you!"

"O-Oh um.... you're welcome," Stiles replied with a nervous laugh as she pulled away, glaring playfully at Derek

"You, in the kitchen- NOW!"

"Yes Ma'am," Derek replied with an eyeroll, ducking past a few people to get to the kitchen entrance

He didn't know what he was supposed to do with all of this, how he was supposed to have the time or supplies to fill all of these orders...

He was a fast baker sure, but not NEARLY that fast...

This was Flash like speed she seemed to want....

Just as he was starting to really panic, apron half-tied on, he glanced up and saw... a parade of floating apples....

Turning around, he was relieved, surprised, and confused to see Stiles already having donned a spare apron and standing by the door

"I uh... figured you could use all the help you could get,"

For the umpteenth time since meeting him, Derek let out a relieved sigh, but this time that wasn't all he did

This time he took a few steps closer, cupping Stiles' face and giving him a long, excited kiss

The musician had done so much for Derek in the past twelve hours.... so much and he highly doubted that Stiles even realized it

He shuddered as he felt the other man snake his arms around Derek's neck, deepening the kiss and holding it for a wile

Just... just holding it

Just letting eachother feel this out until it dissipated organically

"Wow," Stiles breathed

And honestly, Derek didn't know what the hell Stiles had to be "wow"ing about when Derek was the one standing there with his mind blown

"Y-Yeah.... definitely wow...." he finally agreed instead

"Well, I guess it's safe to say I know where I'll be spending my spare time from now on," Stiles smirked, the levitating apples moving to sit on the counter next to Derek's cutting board as the musician leaned up and kissed his cheek

"If that's ok with you ofcourse,"

Ok? _Ok_?

It was practically his dream come true and Stiles wondered if that was _ok_?

Not that he was going to say it like that though, ofcourse

Heart fluttering, lips stretched into a happy grin, Derek gave a slow, single nod of approval

"Trust me, it's more than ok with me,"

And it would continue to be more than ok later on in the year when Derek would end up going on tour with the Sparks and getting a bigger audience- the "Cute Baking Guy" became an internet _legend_ of all things-

And it would continue to be ok when, on next year's Valentine's Day, Stiles would propose using apple pie and The X-Files

For right now though...

"Oh hey, when the rush dies down do you want to get lunch somewhere? How about that steakhouse across the street? I've been wanting to talk to ask you anyway since last night, you like Star Wars don't you?"

Oh yeah, Derek was _definitely_ falling in love


End file.
